TheMReport — News and strategies for the evolving mortgage marketplace.
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TH E M R EP O RT | 19 COVER STORY I f homeownership is the great American Dream, then Chase Home Lending is the place where such dreams can come true. Specifically, Chase's product team has been charged with the key responsibility of ensur- ing that the origination products created by Chase and its mortgage servicing standards stay true to the endgoal of providing comprehensive affordable lending products and services—one of the three five-year goals unveiled by JPMorgan Chase in January 2018. "When we enter a community, we enter it with the full force of JPMorgan Chase behind it," Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, said about these goals. "We hire people. We lend to and support local businesses. We help custom - ers with banking, lending, and saving. And we align our business and philanthropic efforts to help more communities benefit from a growing economy." Schmitt and his team of more than 25 people, in partnership with the affordable lending team, have designed some of Chase's most popular lending programs in recent years. For example, they developed Chase's DreaMaker program that began offering up to $3,000 in grants and incentives to cover closing costs and down payments for families buying a new home in a low- to moderate- income (LMI) community in 2016. In 2018, DreaMaker grew to nearly 15 percent of Chase's consumer purchase volume and is now a key part of the firm's five- year investment plan. Today, Schmitt manages both origination and servicing prod - ucts across Chase Home Lending. As an originations leader, he's responsible for designing origi- nation products and policies to meet Chase's customers' financing needs prudently and responsibly. Wearing the servicer's hat, he makes sure that the products are designed to allow customers to make the most of their money by ensuring products are flexible throughout the life of the loan. "Chase is constantly looking for ways to responsibly expand access to credit. For example, we recently expanded our homeownership grant program from 40 markets to all markets nationally," Schmitt said. "The program aims to reduce the cash that customers are required to contribute at purchase and can be used towards closing costs and down payments." Products that provide sus - tainable and lifelong access to credit and ensure that housing is a tangible, achievable dream for all are the foundation of the many initiatives that Schmitt has worked on during the past decade at JPMorgan Chase. This month, we sat down with Schmitt to learn about what drives him and his team in their mission to provide the best-in-class lending financial solutions for homeownership. The Early Years S chmitt has a background in strategy, portfolio manage- ment, and analytics. But the opportunity to develop a wide range of skills such as industry risk management and credit risk management and developing policies and procedures to help customers achieve their dream of homeownership attracted him to the mortgage space. "Some aspects By Radhika Ojha